Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/207

 in its subaqueous pavilion equivalent to those produced in the diving-bell, or diving helmet, by the successive strokes of the condensing air-pump of scientific man!

In the language of the book of Psalms, this insect "LAYETH THE BEAMS OF" her "CHAMBERS IN THE WATERS," and there secures her subaqueous chambers in the manner described.

—"When we look at the viscid material," says Mr. Rennie, "with which spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the rough, hairy covering (with a few exceptions) of their bodies, we might conclude, that they would be always stuck over with fragments of the minute fibres which they produce. This, indeed, must often happen, did they not take careful precautions to avoid it; for we have observed that they seldom, if ever, leave a thread to float at random, except when they wish to form a bridge. When a spider drops along a line, for instance, in order to ascertain the strength of her web, or the nature of the place below her, she invariably, when she re-ascends, coils it up into a little ball, and throws it away. Her claws are admirably adapted for this purpose, as well as for walking along the lines, as may be readily seen by a magnifying glass. Fig. 13. Plate IV. shows the triple-clawed foot of a spider, magnified, the others being toothed like a comb, for gliding along the lines. This structure, however, unfits it to walk, as flies can do, upon any upright polished surface like glass; although the contrary is erroneously asserted by the Abbé de la Pluche. Before she can do so, she is obliged to construct a ladder of ropes, as Mr. Blackwall remarks , by elevating her spinneret as high as she can, and laying down a step upon which she stands to form a second; and so on, as any one may try by placing a spider at the bottom of a very clean wine glass.

"The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching bits of web and particles of dust; but these are not suffered to remain long. Most people may have remarked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushing its feet upon one another to rub off the